1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data entry and retrieval and, more particularly, to a method and system for selecting annotations created for a data object in a first data source for review and association with the same, or related, data object in other data sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are well known methods for capturing and storing explicit knowledge as data, for example, in relational databases, documents, flat files, and various proprietary formats in binary files. Often, such data is analyzed by various parties (e.g., experts, technicians, managers, etc.), resulting in rich interpretive information commonly referred to as tacit knowledge. Such tacit knowledge, however, is often only temporarily captured, for example, as cryptic notes in a lab notebook, discussions/conversations, presentations, instant messaging exchanges, e-mails and the like. Because this tacit knowledge is typically not captured in the application environment in which the related data is viewed and analyzed, it is often lost. Moreover, even when tacit knowledge is captured for information contained within one application environment, it is often relevant to the same or related information in others. Because it is only linked to the information in the original application, however, it is unavailable in the second, even though relevant and useful.
One approach for more permanently capturing tacit knowledge is to create annotations containing descriptive information about data objects. Virtually any identifiable type of object may be annotated, including, a matrix of data (e.g., a spreadsheet or database table), a text document, or an image. Further, sub-portions of objects (sub-objects) may be annotated, such as a cell, row or column in a database table or a section, paragraph or word in a text document. Typically, an indexing scheme is used to create an index mapping each annotation to the annotated data object or sub-object, based on identifying information. The index should provide enough specificity to allow the indexing scheme to locate the annotated data object (or sub object). Further, the indexing scheme should work both ways to be effective: that is, given an index, the scheme will locate a corresponding data object, and given an object, the scheme will calculate the index values for use in classification, comparison and searching (e.g., to search for annotations for a given data object).
Current annotation systems, however, typically only create and index annotations for the data object occurring in the application for which the annotation was created. Accordingly, the usefulness of the annotation, and the tacit knowledge it captures, is limited to the application environment in which the annotation is initially created. This limitation is especially problematic when the same, or related, data object appears in multiple data sources across an enterprise environment. For example, an annotation to a particular patient record regarding an individual's medications or allergies would be useful in any patient record for the same individual, but unavailable so long as the annotation is only linked with the original data object for which it was created.
This limitation is also apparent if one considers, for example, two research papers published about a DNA mutation. If a researcher annotates various data objects in the first paper, current systems cannot provide access to annotations from the first paper to researchers reviewing the second paper, despite being relevant to concepts and elements discussed in both. In other words, the tacit knowledge captured by annotations is unnecessarily confined to one application instead of being available for association with the same concept reflected by the data object in other applications.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and systems for sharing the tacit knowledge captured by annotations. Preferably, the methods and systems will allow annotations created for data objects within one document to be propagated to the same, or related, data objects in other document. Doing so allows annotations to become associated more generally with a concept or particular piece of information rather than being limited to the document containing the data object for which the annotation was created.